Sorry, i didn’t look at the screeenshot. I would call this a bug in SFOS charging system. If a charger is connected, all cpu cores are awake all the time. Seems like this didn’t go back to normal after you stopped charging.
For a few days my 10 III has been draining battery like crazy - but only on 4G network. 250-300 mAh of constant drain and NEVER GOING TO SLEEP, which results in 4-5% of battery drainage per hour. But that’s ONLY on 4G network (regardless of “4G calling” function status - switching it on or off does not make any difference). It makes no difference if mobile data is enabled or disabled, either.
If I switch the phone to “2G only” mode, or enable the Flight mode, everything starts working normally, i.e. power consumption drops to 100-110 mAh and when not used the device goes to sleep and consumes only 30-50 mAh. Switching to 4G mode instanly rises power consumption and causes that the phone never goes to sleep.
WHAT THE ****?
Hours spent on trying to find what’s causing the problem. I uninstalled everything that could possibly cause it, disabled all email accounts, tested it with other SIM card, looked for any processes with excessive CPU usage… to no avail.
One thing is clear - it happens only if 4G network is in use. The problem started all of a sudden, without any changes on my side and or new software installed.
T-Mobile Poland, nearly perfect network coverage, > 90% network signal strength.
Does anyone have any suggestions? Anything I could try to reinstall?
Reflashing did NOT help. When 4G network is in use, the device never goes to sleep, permanently draining at least 100-200 mAh, which results in 3-4% of battery drainage per hour. After switching to 2G network, as soon as the screen turns off, the device quickly goes to sleep and draws 35-60 mAh.
I have no clue what may be causing it. It happened about a week ago and since then nothing helps, not even a reflash.
On a different note, I’ve just discovered that 4G calling works only in the first SIM card slot. The same SIM card in the second slot can’t register for 4G calling…
1 Like
Have you tried flashing back to Android to outrule a hardware issue?
Yes, I reflashed to Android 11 and then back to SFOS. But I must confess I didn’t test it under Android carefully enough. I was quite sure that reflashing would cure it. Well, it turns out that I was wrong.
What’s really strange is that the problem is present only with 4G network. Switching to “2G only” instantly reduces power consumption to 100-120 mA, which further decreases to 30-50 mA soon after the screen turns off. Switching it back to 4G (even with mobile data and 4G calling disabled) instantly increases power consumption and the device no longer goes to sleep while not in use.
So I’m really puzzled… Maybe T-Mobile PL has recently changed something with their 4G network setup that doesn’t work well with SFOS… Or maybe the 4G band (2.6 GHz or so) that’s been in use where I now live is so much more power hungry… Previously my 10 III was using mostly bands in the 800 and 900 MHz range… Sadly, I don’t know anyone with 10 III with SFOS on T-Mobile to verify it…
Another issue, i.e. no support for 4G calling in the SIM2 slot is also really strange, because everything else works OK. The phone does use 4G network for mobile data, it correctly switches to 2G for calls, it’s just 4G calling (aka VoLTE) that doesn’t register in the second slot. And I don’t know if it ever worked, because I’ve never tried it before.
I can confirm the massive power consumption on 4G network, but with the XA2. Both of my XA2s have it.
When activating 4G they get drained within 12 to 24 hours. No matter if mobile data is turned on or off. That was the reason, I could only use them in 2G network.
Also, it is not a new behaviour. I always had it. But as long as 3G network was active in Germany I had no problem with it. But now …
Last weekend i flashed both phones back to android and then to /e/OS. The battery of the first XA2, mostly used as a dumbphone (no messengers, no mail, bluetooth activated in car, many phone calls), seems to last as long with 4G+mobile data activated, than with SailfishOS installed and only 2G activated. I charged it on Wednesday afternoon to 83% and right now it is at 50% battery.
The other XA2 (nearly no phone calls, 2 Messengers, 1 mail account, much use of internet in wifi) lasts about 50% longer with 4G+mobile data activated, than with SailfishOS installed and only 2G activated.
So it has nothing to do with the hardware or with the provider.
Cellmon lets you monitor the frequencies in use.
Is it anything to do with VoLTE rather than 4G per se?
No, the problem is present regardless of whether VoLTE is enabled or not. Same for mobile data.
I’ve been using it for a long time. Great application, thank you! According to Cellmon, when I’m at home the band in use is always Band 7, i.e. 2662.6 / 2542.6 MHz.
What I’ve just discovered (in Battery Buddy logs) is that when today I moved to a different location (and only during that time) the phone went to sleep a few times, reducing power consumption to 30-50 mA. Only for very short periods like one minute or so, but still. I didn’t check what band it was using at that time, but I remember that at that location it was usually different than the one at home, most probably ~ 2.1 GHz. I’ll further test it tomorrow. As soon as I returned home, the device never went to sleep again, staying above 110 mA all the time with quite frequent 300-500 mA spikes, and consuming > 3% of battery per hour.
P.S. After a few more attempts 4G calling (VoLTE) eventually registered in the SIM2 slot and now it works OK. But power consumption on 4G network using the 2nd modem is just as high as of the 1st modem…
1 Like
I broke the screen on my 10iii and bought a used one. I used Android12 on it for two days. I lost around 60% of battery in 26 hours with only slight use. I installed a battery app and the power consumption with the screen turned off was around 60mah. Looks like the power consumption using SFOS isn’t that bad after all.
3 Likes
Yes it is.
I encountered it on all my last phones. Most of the time I used a lil Android on my XA2, XA2 Plus, 10, 10II and 10III. And after using them with SFOS, I went back with one of my XA2 Plus and the 10. In use, the power consumption was similar but in stand by or idle or howerver to call it, SFOS consumes twice more energy.
It turns out that the aforementioned power consumption problems are caused solely by some weird (mis-)configuration of 4G network of T-Mobile Poland. Or maybe rather some tests / calibrations / whatever being conducted as they’re preparing to launch 5G network on 3.8 GHz band. When those things take place, the phone keeps consuming 200-300 mAh all the time without ever going to sleep, which eats battery like crazy. When they’re not in place (usually at nights) power consumption drops to 100-130 mAh when in use and further drops to 40-60 mAh when idling. That’s solely on 4G network. It is enough to switch the phone to “2G only” mode for the power consumption to instantly drop to normal and the device normally reducing power consumption when sleeping. Sometimes it takes a day or two with normal (low) power consumption on 4G network, and then a week of permanently increased power consumption. My wife has been observing the same phenomenon on her iPhone 7s, which only has a 1700 mAh battery (i.e. almost 3 times smaller than the 10 III), so when those strange things take place, her iPhone dies on her in the middle of the day. So it is not related or restricted to SFOS or the 10 III.
4 Likes
Nope, that is not the cause. I have the same issue in Sweden. I used to use pretty much only GSM(2G) and 3G with my 10 III and then the battery was fine - great even compared to my old XA2. But a few months back my operator shut down the old networks and I was forced to use only 4G with VoLTE and since then the battery drainage is the before mentioned 200-400 mAh. I have to put the phone in flight mode over night to avoid having a dead battery in the morning. When in flight mode the drainage is back to normal.
This is definitely related to 4G handling. Might be affected by Wifi too perhaps but mostly it’s a 4G problem. Which really sucks because there is no way to avoid it now 
As there are periods of time when it does not happen (usually at nights and on weekends), it must be caused by the network, not by the device. I suspect that it has something to do with communication with 4G base stations (e.g. querrying surrounding cells, switching between them, updating status, etc.) which eats power and prevents the phone from going to sleep.
If it was a SFOS problem, it would be happening all the time. And, as I wrote, my wife has exactly the same problem with her iPhone…
1 Like
Well, I can not state for certain since I haven’t tested with many other models in the same area. So yeah, I suppose it can be a problem with 4G in general and not specifically with Sailfish handling of 4G. I have not seen any location I have traveled to around Sweden that does NOT have this insane power drain on my phone. There does not seem to be much of a difference between locations.
If it is indeed just a 4G problem than all Android and iPhones should also have extremely poor battery times and that’s not my impression. If that’s the case I also really question the decision to shut down the older much more efficient networks.
In case it helps someone - hopefully Jolla to figure this out - I have done more testing and I don’t see any bad power drain from Wifi any more. It used to be the case, when I had the XA2. But there is only a very minor increase when activating wifi on airplane mode now in quite a lot of tests. As soon as 4G is activated however the power drain increase 2-4 times.
I used android on xperia 10 III for 2 months and battery life was definetly a lot better with 4g. Having location on also uses more battery. And battery consumption does not go down at night with SFOS, I had a lot of battery draining empty during night, until I started using 3g and switch to 4g on only when I need it. I do hope this issue gets fixed before Dna operator shuts down 3g. Or maybe 5g will fix it?
1 Like
I suspect it may have something to do with specific 4G bands, especially those high frequency ones like 2.1 GHz, 2.6 GHz or 3.8 GHz. Not only the cells of those bands are smaller (and in case of 3.8 GHz really small) than in case of typical 2G and 3G frequencies like 900 MHz or 1800/1900 MHz, but additionally the signal is more prone to obstacles, which further reduces its range. The result is that in certain situations there is A LOT of switching between neighbouring cells and between bands. Using e.g. CellMon you can observe how your phone sometimes switches between several neighbouring base stations, or between different bands of the same cell (e.g. 2100 MHz and 2600 MHz) like crazy, e.g. every 10-20 seconds or so. And when those switches take place, I often see corresponding momentary power consumption spikes. I also suspect that this is something that prevents the device from sleeping as it needs to constantly interact with the mobile network.
I did not have those problems when I lived in a location away from city center where 800 and 900 MHz 4G bands were mostly used. Last year I moved to the city center and now with 2.1 and 2.6 GHz bands being used I have this problem nearly all the time.
Thanks, I will check further. Not that I can do anything about it but perhaps it can be useful info for Jolla.
No chance for switching between cells where I live though. I have exactly one single tower in range around here in the woods.
So maybe in your case it’s switching between different bands served by the same BTS. The same single base station usually serves multiple bands. E.g. the one I am connected to at the very moment (ECID 287989) serves like 24 separate channels of two different mobile networks (T-Mobile PL and Orange PL, they have an agreement to share network resources).
http://btsearch.pl/szukaj.php?mode=std&search=287989
When e.g. the 1900 or 2100 MHz signal becomes too weak or too disturbed, switching to a lower frequency band (if available) takes place, e.g. to 900 or 800 MHz. And then back, if the higher band’s signal strength and quality are again considered good enough. And so on. It looks that in some areas it may happen very often. It’s probably good for the network, but definitely not so good for the phone’s power consumption.
Oh dear, Dna just shut down 3g I think. Goodbye low power consumption.
So now I have done some more testing and I can say for sure that I don’t see the frequent band och cell switching that wetab73 noticed. At home I am stable on band 20 / 800mhz with quite poor reception (status rssi ~22% & cell rssi ~35%). In the city there is different bands and much higher reception of course and it does switch sometimes but not very often, can not be the cause by itself for drainage.
Both at home and in the city battery drainage lies between -250 to -270 mA with screen on and no active usage. Turning on flight mode cause drainage to immediately drop to between -130 to -150 mA. In other words: having active 4G cause power usage to approximately double.
I don’t have test data for 2G/3G since that’s shut down here now but I am certain I noticed the drainage at the same time they shut down the old networks. I remember I tried everything to figure out why the phone suddenly consumed so much power before finally realizing in coincided with the network change.
1 Like